One kilometer into the earth, entirely on its own
A naturally formed lava tube is the hardest inspection environment we know: total darkness, no GPS, no radio, jagged unmapped rock in every direction. A drone running Sarthi's mission stack explored and mapped more than a kilometer of one, fully autonomously.
What actually happened
The drone entered the tube with no prior map and no connection to the outside. It built its understanding of the passage as it flew, chose where to go next on its own, covered more than 1,000 meters of winding volcanic cave, and returned with a complete 3D map.
No pilot ever touched a stick. No signal ever reached the vehicle. The mission was part of published, peer-reviewed field research, and it remains the first and only fully autonomous aerial exploration of a natural lava tube at this scale.
Why a mine should care
Every assumption a connected inspection platform depends on was absent, and the mission still completed. A mine's unconnected workings are the same problem with better floors.
The same self-reliant mission layer now runs Sarthi's ground robots on routine rounds: if it could explore a kilometer of unknown cave, it can repeat Tuesday's patrol on level 2.
Want the technical detail? The research behind this mission is published and peer-reviewed; we are happy to share it.
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